Many Projects Across or Near the Finish Line Today

We are wrapping up our various projects at WCC, and tomorrow morning, our last day here, we should easily bring the rest of the work across the finish line before taking the kiosk and trailer to feed the homeless at lunch time.

Today all of the landscaping was wrapped up except for fastening up the new privacy screen along the fence behind the church and parsonage. That project can easily be completed on Thursday morning. The window work is complete including the trim painting except for a couple more windows that can be finished in the morning as well. Kenny installed new gutters and downspout over the front door of the parsonage above the new ramp. The bottom of the trailer got painted today as did some other miscellaneous places around the property needing touched up. More lighting and electrical work took place last night and today, with only a little more in store for tomorrow morning.

Charlie installed tile and repaired a toilet in a bathroom at Ruth's house across the street. You might remember she is the hostess who had the whole church over for lunch Sunday. Apparently that is a regular, every Sunday, all afternoon event for the Filipino congregation. The bathroom everyone uses is right off the lanai where they all congregate. So it makes sense that we help Ruth fix up her bathroom as part of this project.

This afternoon most of us went to the Polynesian Heritage Center which is a short drive to the north shore of Oahu. It was an interesting and very entertaining afternoon learning about the amazing diversity of culture there is among the hundreds of islands across the massive Pacific Ocean. We then made a repeat stop to Seven Brothers, an incredible shrimp place we went to when we first arrived two weeks ago. On the way home we had the bonus experience of one last sunset on the north shore at Turtle Beach where three large sea turtles were resting and posing for pictures under the watchful eye of an oceanographer.

We are excited about tomorrow. While we are not excited about leaving Hawaii or the people of the WCC, we are excited to successfully wrap up the projects we set out to complete and then some. But mostly we are excited about putting the kiosk and trailer into service feeding the homeless.

Stay tuned for more updates. I hope to add pictures of Thursday's events in one of the airports as we await flights traveling home, but if that doesn't work, sometime this weekend I should have time to submit a final update. Stay tuned! Mahalo for following the blog and praying for our team. We greatly appreciate the support of you, our ohana. Aloha for now!

Tuesday in Wahiawa and Pearl Harbor

Tuesday was a work day for some and a site seeing day for others on our team. At the work site, John and Tim took the rest of the landscaping debris and cuttings to the dump to free up the trailer to be prepared for the kiosk. Jean and Tim painted the new trailer in preparation for the kiosk to be mounted on it. Other landscaping projects were completed around the church and parsonage in preparation for a few more projects to take place tomorrow. Notice some of the birds of paradise that bloomed today.  Tim and Connie made preparations so we can feed the homeless Thursday at lunchtime before we have to pack up and head to the airport. I'm sure I am missing some other activities that took place today around the WCC today.

Many of the team members, who have not been to Hawaii before, spent today touring Pearl Harbor. We had tickets for most venues, but the Arizona Memorial is free but first come, and they only let in 1500 people every day. We wanted to be sure to make the cut. By arriving at 5:15 AM we managed to be the very first people in line today. The bonus for being at the front of the line was getting to listen to hilarious stories from the night guard. Since I was in the Pearl Harbor group today most of my pictures today, with help from Pat and Kenny, are from that tour.

This evening we made our plan of attack and a 7AM start for Wednesday so we can wrap up the final projects we are tackling at WCC before we have to leave Thursday evening.

Nearing the Finish Line on Many Projects Monday

I forgot to mention yesterday that Hawaii does not do daylight savings time which means two things. First, we did not lose an hour of sleep.Second, we are now 6 hours behind EDT instead of 5. Please keep that in mind when trying to call us before noon Ohio time and we will try to keep that in mind trying to call home after dinner Hawaii time:-).

 Monday March 13 was a day we reached some finish lines at WCC. Several landscaping projects were finished up today. Window trimming was completed on all the windows we installed and then some. Almost all the windows have now been caulked and painted. Blinds were installed on 11 basement windows. Painting is finished on the new kiosk we built last week thanks to Peter the power painter here at the WCC. Some more lighting fixtures were installed.  Numerous other small projects have been completed as well. Some of the guys even worked on  a car that is being donated to the church. After a long productive day of work the lasagna dinner the ladies cooked for us was a fitting reward. Most of us are heading to bed early tonight since we have to be up and out of here at 4:45 AM to get in a visit to Pearl Harbor. 

We have three days left after today here on Oahu and we should have no problem wrapping up the remaining work while still having time to do a little more sightseeing. We also are looking forward to taking the kiosk on its maiden voyage Thursday to feed the homeless here in Wahiala before we have to head for the airport Thursday evening for the long journey home.